Des Moines Garden “Winter”

I chatted with Cathy Barash for an update on the Des Moines garden today. She tells us: “Winter has finally arrived and we had two snows within a week and now have six inches on the ground. This is finally giving plants some protection and temperature consistency since in the last couple of months temperatures have ranged from highs in the 60’s and plunging to 7 below. Daffodils were up as much as much as 6” and now are under the snow and some of our fruit trees and lilacs were showing swollen buds. I expect we will have a less colorful spring. Time will tell. The neighbors free range chickens “free ranged” and on a sultry Thanksgiving day, broke loose and feasted on the newly sprouted seeds of my Tyfon covercrop ….the eggs were delicious. Fortunately, this was the perfect year to have removed most of the plants in my garden and start over.”

Cathy has been busy meeting writing deadlines and will begin making posts as spring and warmer weather allows more gardening. We look forward to news and photos of how her Des Moines neighborhood garden progresses.